From living in a van in San Diego to growing chocolate with indigenous tribes in Central America, to teaching in the Middle East and volunteering in Africa, Gregory V. Diehl has spent his entire adult life discovering the world and himself. Leaving his California home shortly after his 18th birthday, he went on to live and work in 45 countries across the globe by age 28.

By recounting the existential lessons from his journey, Diehl challenges the reader to question how their identity has been shaped by the culture and lifestyle they know. He argues, compellingly, that travel can transform your perception of yourself along with the world. By losing your comfortable sense of self, you learn to examine your life through the structure of everything it can become.

To travel solo with a truly open mind is to forget who you were when you started. It is to be constantly born anew, to discover your strengths and find your path in life. Travel As Transformation will give you the wisdom, the inspiration, and the resources to conquer the limitations placed by your arbitrary past. Whether traveler or non-traveler, its lessons about approaching the uncomfortable and unfamiliar apply to everyone.